<p>Here we go again with the honor society invitations which I guess is a good problem. It becomes pretty tiring to research these invitations and expensive if you don’t. Anyone care to share opinions or experiences with Golden Key International? We’ve passed on several that didn’t seem worth it. Do any of you have an experience or opinion to share? I’m pretty skeptical of many of these organizations, and we’ve steered clear of most of them. Something about this one doesn’t seem legit to me, but I could be wrong. I’d really appreciate saving time researching this one.</p>
<p>Son had the same question. From past information that I have gathered, it seems that Phi Kappa Psi and Phi Beta Kappa are the only two that are “worth it”. By this I mean that they are recognized by future employers to varying degrees. The first is usually offered to students earlier. The later is usually offered during the senior and sometimes junior year. Of course, specific majors also have different honor societies that may be valuable.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. I’m not sure how valid or scientific my doubts may be, but I"m always skeptical when the “pride in your academic accomplishments” seems a little too heavy in the invitation. With so many of these invitations floating around, we’ve found it necessary to research them to avoid wasting money. I’m thinking this may be another one to pass on unless any of you have experiences to share to show me otherwise. Thanks.</p>
<p>I agree that Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi are the two most recognized.</p>
<p>However, each major may have a nationally well known society as well. My math and eng’g sons also joined the well-known ones associated with their majors. My younger son recently was awarded a $2000 scholarship from the engineering one…Beta Tau Pi</p>
<p>My son has been a member of the Golden Key the past two years. He recently landed one of its scholarships, so I guess he would say that his membership has been worth it.</p>
<p><em>Just</em> when I decided it probably wasn’t worth the 80 bucks…!</p>
<p>Thanks, momreads. I’ll look into this further. Am I the only one who has difficulty deciding which ones are worth joining and which ones are not?</p>
<p>I’m with you, NRDMOM, I was ready to dismiss this one until reading momread’s post. One of the ones we almost passed on last year resulted in an unexpected scholarship for which we were extremely grateful.
I’ll look at this a little closer now.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing. :)</p>
<p>My son got the invite too and I definitely have trouble figuring out which are worth joining and which are not.</p>
<p>When I saw the invite, I started searching threads on CC and Google and what I quickly learned is that it is legitimate, but not as prestigious at it was in the past, that the $80 fee is a lifetime membership and that there are small perks like discounts on test prep stuff which might come in handy for the GRE, etc later, travel, and other misc that might make up the cost over time, that the prevailing opinion seems to be that you get out of it what you put into it and if you are involved then it’s worthwhile, but if you just join for a line on your resume that it’s better to save your money and just put ‘nominated to be a member of Golden Key International Honor Society’ on there instead.</p>
<p>I’ll probably just let my son decide if he wants to join.</p>
<p>Thanks, jrcsmom. D had several tests this week and forwarded this invite to me to investigate since she didn’t think she would have time. I’ve been following the same process you described to gather info. Unfortunately, my laundry isn’t folding itself while I look.</p>
<p>One of the things that puzzled me is that I thought I read on the site specific to the local chapter that invitations were issued to juniors and seniors. I don’t remember the invitation specifying. My D is a second year student, but I guess she might be considered a junior based upon her hours since she brought in quite a few. Maybe I need to revisit, reread, and reconsider.</p>
<p>NRDMOM: My son paid $75 two years ago (so there has been a slight increase in that time) to join. He got that back in scholarship money … and a lot more. He has not used it for travel discounts, GRE prep, etc. The national office of his fraternity also offers similar perks with its membership. One thing that I can say is that members of any honor society must read through the newsletters (usually they are online) to find out about scholarships and perks. My son did not mind writing an essay for a chance at a scholarship. That may not be the case for all students.</p>
<p>bamagirls: It must be hours, unless they changed their requirements because DS is very much a freshman, although it looks like he may acquire JR status at the <em>end</em> of his first semester, so perhaps that figures into their calculation? I’m beginning to look at the honor societies like lottery tickets - play enough, and one may eventually pay off!</p>
<p>Hmmm… </p>
<p>My son is a freshman as well, but came in with sophomore status due to dual-enrollment courses, but at the end of his first semester, he’ll ‘only’ have 50 credits, which is still sophomore status. He won’t reach junior status until the end of his freshman year…</p>
<p>Maybe Jr. status by the end of the year? Or - hair color? How frequently they shower?</p>
<p>I really like the lottery ticket analog! Oh well, we always tell the oldest she’s our experimental child since we often learn from the decisions we make with her…guess that will continue.</p>